Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) is zeroing in on an advanced engine technology program to ensure that it is not used to resurrect the “second” engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that Congress killed last year.
The defense industry supply chain is rife with counterfeit parts and efforts to police them are failing, increasing the risk that such parts could compromise the quality of U.S.-made defense systems, or even offer back doors to cybersnoops, escalating the threat of espionage and intellectual theft.
If the House was displeased by the U.S. Air Force’s plan to scale back the Air National Guard, the Senate is equally annoyed. In fact, one of the top senators on National Guard matters is bothered by the lack of analysis provided by the Air Force to support its Air Guard budget decisions. A May 23 hearing of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee allowed Guard officials to vent as much as they could publicly about how the active duty Air Force overrode their suggestions on how to trim the budget.
Regardless of whether the U.S. Navy has to deal with the impact of sequestration, the service will certainly have to plan for a smaller fleet and fleet ship trade-offs to accommodate the economic climate, defense analysts say. “We’re heading for smaller fleet,” says Eric Labs, senior Congressional Budget Office analyst for naval weapons and forces. “This should be the question—how small will be too small?”
The core crew size for the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) will be increasing, confirms Robert Work, undersecretary for the service. The increase is significant because the addition of crew members calls into question the low manning requirements envisioned for the ship. More sailors means higher lifecycle costs; the projected, relatively cheap long-term costs of operating the vessel have been a major selling point for the ship in Congress.
It is nearly 2-min.-warning time for the U.S. Navy’s competition for the Aegis Combat System Engineering Agent (CSEA), and the general consensus in the defense community is that the service is willing to grasp the opportunity to open up the vaunted program to contractor newcomers.
TOULOUSE — Airbus Military expects to finalize an initial in-service support contract with France for the A400M airlifter soon. Closing negotiations are ongoing to ensure support is available once the first aircraft is delivered around year’s end. Completing those talks “is a matter of some weeks,” says Stephan Miegel, head of the A400M customer services program.
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The F-35B conducted its first flight out of Eglin AFB, Fla., May 22, marking one of several steps needed to officially stand up pilot training for the Lockheed Martin stealthy jet there. The first F-35A conventional-takeoff-and-landing aircraft arrived at Eglin in July 2011 and the first B variant, optimized for the Marine Corps’ short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing requirement, arrived in January. Twelve F-35s are now at the base.
Airbus Military expects to receive the A400M type certification in July, with the start of a key test phase needed for that approval merely “a question of days.”
REMOTE VIEWING: Consultancy Forecast International (FI) projects the worldwide civil and commercial remote sensing satellite market will reach $17 billion over 2012-2021, during which 108 remote sensing satellites will be produced. “Demand for remote sensing satellite data continues to increase,” FI says.
MADRID — Airbus Military is selling eight C-295s to Oman and expects to sign more deals in the coming months, as it anticipates booking potentially more than 30 new orders this year. After signing deals for only five light transports last year, Airbus Military has already secured more than 20 orders so far in 2012, notes Antonio Rodriguez Barberan, the company’s senior commercial vice president.
Northrop Grumman is adjusting its schedule to support installation of the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (Canes) system on U.S. Navy ships following a delay caused by a contract-award objection from Lockheed Martin, which later withdrew the protest.
U.S. NAVY Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc., Pascagoula, Miss., is being awarded a $133,751,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee not-to-exceed modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-06-C-2222) for advance procurement of long-lead-time materials and pre-construction activities in support of Landing Platform Dock 27. Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Miss., and is expected to complete by June 2017. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
The U.S. Defense Department needs to spend less time and money identifying and buying existing equipment to meet urgent combat needs, says a recently released U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
TOKYO — The Japanese defense ministry will decide on an engine for the UH-X utility helicopter within two or three months so manufacturer Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) can begin the detail design phase. The likely engine is the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) XTS2, a 940-kw (1,260-hp) derivative of the 660-kw TS1 turboshaft, itself an adaptation of MHI’s MG5 family, which was developed in 1987.
u.s. AIR FORCE Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., El Segundo, Calif., is being awarded a $51,284,530 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for Multi Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program radar system development and demonstration, ECP-025, radar modification for Global Hawk Block 40. The location of the performance is Norwalk, Conn. Work is to be completed by March 2015. AMC/ESC, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-00-C-0100 P00233).
LONDON — After almost two decades in the making, NATO has finally awarded a contract to field an Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system. The alliance has signed a $1.7 billion contract to acquire five Northrop Grumman Global Hawk Block 40s to address an operational shortfall first identified during the 1991 Persian Gulf war and validated during last year’s Libya air campaign. An initial operational capability is due to be reached in 2016. The deal was signed during the meeting of NATO members’ heads of government in Chicago.
U.S. Navy officials are downplaying the recent failure of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom to pass a special pre-ship-trial inspection, saying, among other things, that these types of reviews are more rigorous than before. But the Freedom has a checkered past when being subjected to tests and inspections, resulting in truncated sea trials and even a delayed entry into the Panama Canal.
UAV APPETITE: The U.S. Department of Defense spent $5.25 billion on unmanned aerial systems in 2010, with the U.S. Air Force taking the largest piece of the pie, according to consultancy Frost & Sullivan. “Most of the $2.42 billion the Air Force has earmarked for UAS spending in 2012 is for the procurement of the MQ-9 Predator,” the group reports. Fiscal 2011 government contracts awarded specifically for the U.S. military UAS market amounted to $3.78 billion. The biggest program winners included the ER/MP MQ-1 Gray Eagle, MQ-9, and RQ-4, Frost states.
